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THE GENERAL BOARD OF PROMOTION 
of the NORTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION 


200 Fifth Avenue New York City 





amy 


DEVOTIONAL SERIES 





THE 


LIFE of PRAYER 


By 
WILLIAM E. DOUGHTY 


Being one of a series of devotional pamphlets 
designed to cultivate the spiritual 
resources of the church. 


Reprinted by courtesy of the 


INTERCHURCH WORLD MOVEMENT 
OF NORTH AMERICA 
45 WEST 187s ST. NEW YORK CITY 





The Life of Prayer q 


TH deepest missionary need of our time 

is not for any material or external thing. 
The deepest need is spiritual; the need for a 
vitality in the church equal to its vast work 
of naturalizing Christianity over all the 
world. For this task no mere number of 
workers at home or on the field will be sufh- 
cient, nor will prayerless giving ever evangel- 
ize the world, no matter how great the 
amount. How to call forth and apply the 
boundless resources of Jesus Christ, are al- 
ways extremely important questions. 


One of the elemental means for releasing 
these forces is prayer—a supreme factor in 
missionary leadership. More and greater 
issues hang on this than on any other one 
thing. The story of every great Christian 
achievement is the history of answered 
prayer. The unfolding providence of our 
God has been a clarion call to the leaders of 
the church to devote themselves to inter- 
cession above every other activity. Here is 
truly “‘an open but unfrequented path to 
immortality.” How startling that this “cen- 
tral act” in victorious service should be 
called “the deeply buried talent,” and “the 
forgotten secret of the church. > The pur- 
pose of our present discussion is to state and 
illustrate three fundamental convictions re- 


garding the life of prayer. é 
i 


A CONTINUOUS DISCOVERY 5 


I 


Tue Lire oF PRAYER IS A LIFE 
oF Continuous DIscovERY 


| the study of the Scriptures and the his- 

tory of the expanding church we find four 
discoveries in which prayer has a powerful 
influence. 


THE Discovery or Gop 


Ts 1s life’s greatest discovery. The 

practise of prayer is the fine art of be- 
coming acquainted with God. All the men 
of the kingdom, who have most fully re- 
vealed God to other men, have reached the 
heights here, for prayer vitalizes and clarifies 
all our thinking about God. It was Isaiah 
worshiping in the temple who saw the Lord 
high and lifted up. Paul states this truth in 
clear-cut words in Acts 22:17-18, “While I 
Baved it. ete saw Him.” 


The Book of Acts is the story of the growth 
of the early church from a small group of 
Jews in Jerusalem, to a world power. The 
expansion described in the first twelve chap- 
ters is largely a history of the expanding 
Peter. What a record this is of a man who, 
under the transforming power of the Holy 
Spirit given in answer to prayer, came to be 
a citizen of the world kingdom! It is with 
this outlook he can say, “ Neither is there any 
other name under heaven, that is given 
among men, wherein we must be saved” 
(Acts 4:12). To him henceforth all personal 
values end in Jesus Christ, and all social 
ideals culminate in the kingdom of God. 


6 THE LIFE OF PRAYER 




























Sh 


Nothing less than a deep and consum a 
conviction, that there is no other man ané 
no other message save the Christ Man ai anc 
the Christ Message able to meet the bottom. 
most need of the world, will send us fort 
with relentless strength. It is this rock ; 
bottom truth which has sent men through 
fire and flood for the gospel’s sake. We need 
to believe this with a sincerity and earnest= 
ness that kindles all life into deepest devo- 
tion. — 


If we had no other illustrations than these 
three from the Scriptures, it would bi 
enough; but a host of witnesses in this mod- 
ern day testify to the same wonderful sft - 
nation of mind and heart in hours of prayer, 
so that God thenceforth is a new and living 
reality. Many an intercessor can say, 
“While I was praying there was in the room 
a fragrance as though all the flowers in the 
garden of God had opened there, a tender- 
ness like the pity of infinite parenthood 
flooded my life, and a Presence appeared 
shriveling up all that was mean and low, 
helping me to see life’s issues in proper pro- 
portion and perspective, and pointing th 
way to life’s great tasks.”” None but a ma: 
of prayer could say as did Zinzendorf, “ 
have only one passion: It is He, He alone 


The hearts of thousands have been we 1 
by the story of how Horace Bushnell in ol 
North College at Yale, in the darkness < 
despair of doubt, by prayer and obedient 
discovered God. The story of the hot fre =. 
of that moral struggle and victory may b 
read in a sermon which he preached hs ars 


A CONTINUOUS DISCOVERY 7 


afterward in the college chapel entitled, “The 
Dissolving of Doubts.” If we would be ex- 
plorers in the realm of spiritual realities, we 
must be men of prayer. 


Tue Discovery oF THE WILL 
oF Gop For a Man’s LIFE 


I" was after much prayer as recorded in 

Acts that the new disciple was chosen to 
take the place of Judas. That was the be- 
ginning of a new era, and the first Christians 
depended, as never before, on prayer and the 
Holy Spirit, whose leadership is recognized 
sixty times in that one book. We discover 
that it was the habit of the early church to 
introduce new disciples at once to the life of 
prayer, with the result that, when they were 
all scattered abroad in the persecutions that 
followed, each disciple was a beacon light 
preaching the Word with power. 


It was during those three days of prayer 
that Paul discovered that it was the will of 
God that he preach Christ among the Gen- 
tiles. His epistles are strewn with the record 
of repeated crises in his life where he was 
made conscious of God’s will in answer to 
prayer. Gossner tells how, while pastor in 
Berlin, when three or four humble men came 
to him and told of their burning desire to 
take the gospel to the non-Christian world, 
he at first firmly refused to approve their 
plans. ‘They requested that-he pray with 
them about the matter, and after much 
prayer he came to see that it was the will of 
God for his life that he train them for service. 
He says his chief business was “ringing the 





8 THE LIFE OF PRAYER 


prayer bell.”” So clearly was this the leading 
of God that he was enabled to send out and 
support more than one hundred and forty 
missionaries. 

Among the instructions given to his work- 
ers is this one: “Believe, hope, love, pray! 
Hold fast by prayer; wrestle like Jacob.” 
While Gossner is the outstanding figure in 
this movement, much credit for his success 
is to be attributed to the deep life of prayer 
of his associates, who had so much to do with - 
his work. 

Louis Harms was opposed and stood alone 
in his plans to carry the gospel outside of 
Germany. He describes how he discovered © 
the will of God in prayer. He says, “‘I had 
knocked at many doors and found them shut; 
and yet the plan was manifestly good, and 
for the glory of God. I prayed fervently to 
the Lord, laid the whole matter in his hands, 
and as J rose up at midnight from my knees 
I said in a voice that almost startled me in 
the quiet room, ‘Forward now in God’s 
name.’ From that moment there never 
came a thought of doubt into my mind.” 

In the case of Gossner the difficulty was 
subjective, while with Harms it was objec- 
tive. Prayer is equally effective both in 
changing a man’s personal relation to mis- 
sions, and also in transforming indifference 
in others into zeal and devotion. 


THE DiscovERY OF THE PLANS 
oF Gop FoR THE WoRLD 


[" REQUIRES much spirituality and much | 
walking with God to see the world through 
the eyes of Christ. The tenth chapter of 


A CONTINUOUS DISCOVERY 9 


Acts contains the record of a man whose 
whole thought of the world was transformed 
during a time of meditation and prayer. 
Peter on the housetop and Cornelius in the 
palace, both praying! God showing the 
Roman that he must send for the Jew; God 
showing the Jew that the Gentiles must be 
included in the scope of the gospel. 


It was nothing less than a genuine revolu- 
tion for him to say, “The Spirit bade me go 
with them, making no distinction” (Acts 
11:12), and “Of a truth I perceive that God 
is no respecter of persons; but in every nation 
he that feareth him, and worketh righteous- 
ness, is acceptable to him” (Acts 10:34-35). 


Prayer not only illuminates the Word, but 
lights up the world. Here Peter had his 
second Pentecost. This opened up the gos- 
pel to the Roman world even as the Jerusa- 
lem Pentecost was an unmeasured blessing 
to the Jews. There are two other notable 
outpourings of the Holy Spirit in Acts; one 
in which Peter was the human leader at Sa- 
maria (Acts 8). Philip and others had been 
sent out after special prayer (Acts 6:5-6). 
The other was at Ephesus, where the Greek 
world was touched in Acts 19:5-7._ God was 
here reaching Jew, Samaritan, Greek, Ro- 
man—the world! In each case prayer had 
formed a notable part of the preparation, and 
revealed the largeness of God’s purpose for 
the world. 


10 Tue LIFE OF PRAYER © 




























ee. 

. <a + ona 

Tue Discovery oF New OUTLETS 
AND AVENUES FOR PRAYER 


T#. LIFE of prayer is apparently capable 
of indefinite variety and limitless growth. 
These new avenues and outlets for prayer 
follow at least three general lines. 


There is first the deeply rooted and grows 
ing habit of unhurried communion with God, 
Has this not been true through all the ages, 
that if you trace to its source every Christiar 
movement, you come at last upon some one 
who has learned the secrets of prevailing 
prayer? " 


The most powerful leader in all the Chris = 
tian centuries is the lone watcher on the hills, 
It may be some eager spirit like Paul, whose 
soul rushes out in a torrent of speech, thanks- 
giving, petition, appeal, or the quiet, deep, 
lover-like communion of John; the passion oj f 
a man with a brilliant university career like 
John Wesley, or the immortal talent of som 
nameless saint. In the second place there is 
a steady growth in definiteness and expam 
sion in subjects. As Dean Goulburn says, 
“He who embraces in his prayer the widest 
circle of his fellow creatures is most in sym= 
pathy with the mind of God.” Paul is a 
good illustration of this principle. After his 
own eyes are opened in answer to prayer he 
begins to pray for others, those near at hand, 
the workers, then converts in an increasing 
number of places; for kings and those in 
authority, for those who oppose the progre 
of the gospel—all this engulfed in a este 0! 
praise. So it is with those who follow Paul 


Ses 


=, 


wo? 


“as he followed Christ; they are imperialists 
in the highest sense. 


Tae 
a A CoNTINUOUS DISCOVERY 11 


Finally there develops a genius for appro- 


_ priation—the ability to take from the spirit- 


‘ual realm the forces and vitalities that are 
needed for the world. This is one of the 
highest tests of the depth and reality of the 
life of prayer. J. Hudson Taylor lived such 
‘a life of intimacy with Christ that he not 
only developed wonderful skill in discovering 
~God’s will, but also an even more wonderful 
genius for appropriating and applying the 
powers of the heavenly kingdom. “There i is 


undiscovered territory in every man’s life; 
- blessed is he who is the Columbus of his own 


soul.” 





II 


Tue LIFE oF PRAYER IS A LIFE OF 
DEEPENING DEVOTION 


RAYER at its heart is keeping company 

with our Lord. It shrivels and dies with- 
out steady growth in the things of the king- 
dom. Itisnocheapthing. The power that 
comes with prayer cannot be had for the 
mere asking. It expands with a more per- 
fect understanding of and yieldingness to the 
calls of Christ; it deepens with bearing on 
one’s heart the burdens of the lost; it widens 
with the joy of lifting; it strengthens with the 
vision of the kingdom. It is an eye hori- 
zoned only by the total program of Christ. © 
Ignorance of prayer is a great misfortune, but 
prayerlessness is death. ‘To master its se- 
crets there must be uncompromising surren- 
der, the unhesitating uncovering of our 
hearts to the scrutiny of Christ. This sur- 
render is both an act and an attitude. The 
act is abandon to God; the attitude is obedi- 
ence and abiding. ‘The act is the gateway, 
it is a first thing; the attitude is a perpetual 
and final thing. The first is an act of will; 
wa second is an act of will plus an attitude of 
ove. 


There is nothing like prayer over the open 
Book to bring one to an act of abandonment, 
for the uplifted eye and open Book create an 
atmosphere in which it is easy to fling one’s 
life apon the heart of God. After that we 


A CONTINUOUS DISCOVERY 13 


will need constantly fresh overflowings of 
passion and purpose, deeper obedience, and 
more unbroken peace. Prayer feeds all these. 
Is it not this which stirs us so deeply as we 
_ draw near and look into the lives of the men 
who have most deeply moved their genera- 
tion? ‘Their expanding life of prayer reveals 
their deepening devotion to the kingdom of 
God. 


It is a consuming devotion in pastors like 
George H. C. McGregor, who sent out seven 
-missionaries from his own church, and had 
started in to win another seven when he was 
cut down by death. It was he who said, “‘I 
would rather train one man to pray than ten 
mento preach.” Such pastors cannot fail to 
make their congregations grapple with the 
realities of the kingdom. 


Self-sacrificing devotion to Christ creates 
pioneers like Verbeck of Japan, of whom the 
Japanese themselves said, “This benefactor, 
teacher, and friend of Japan prayed for the 
welfare of the empire to the last.” It marks 
philanthropists like George Mueller, who se- 
cured through prayer seven millions of dol- 
lars for the care of his orphans; of him it may 
be said that his was an exceptional case only 
_ because there was an exceptional amount and 
strength of prayer. When Judson finished 
his Burmese Bible, taking the last sheet in 
his hand, on his knees in prayer, he dedicated 
it to God. ‘There have been reformers, too, 
like Wilberforce praying and fighting, until 
at three o’clock in the morning, Parliament 
passed a bill so amending the charter of the 
Fast India Company as to admit mission- 


14 THE LIFE OF PRAYER er. 


aries into India. After that victory it is no 
wonder he says, “I am persuaded that we 
have laid the foundation-stone of the grand-— 


est edifice that ever was raised in Asia.” 


Hidden workers, too, there are who are — 
mighty “helpers together by prayer.” G. — 


Campbell Morgan dedicates his book on The 
Practice of Prayer to one of these: “To Mari- 
anne Adlard, one of the hidden workers who 
endure as seeing Him who is invisible, and 


who in secret labor by intercession with those 
who preach the Word.” When James Gil- 


mour, the martyr missionary to Mongolia, — 


crossed the frontier into Mongolia and his 
eyes caught sight of the first hut, he kneeled 


down and gave thanks to God for a redeemed - 


Mongolia. 









All Sunday school workers should know ~ 


Harriet Lathrop, whose story is told in Old 


Time Student Volunteers. Her life of.deep- — 
ening devotion to Jesus Christ led her to 


organize a Sunday school in the face of great 


opposition; and she so lived and taughtin the © 
power of the spirit of Jesus Christ that she © 


not only went out herself as a missionary, 
but three sisters followed her, one brother 
became a home missionary, another went into 
the ministry, and her daughter became the 
wife of a home missionary. 


This intense devotion characterizes busi- 


ness men like Nathaniel Cobb, of Boston, 


who had a prayer room in his store; or bril- 
liant mystics like Henry Martyn, who wrote, 
“T lay in tears interceding for the unfortu- 
nate natives of this country;” native Chris- 


tians like Neesima advancing on his knees, or — 


~ 


os 


x 


A CONTINUOUS DISCOVERY 15 


Pundita Ramabai with 1,600 women and 
girls depending on her, and who, to one who 
inquired what she would ask the people of 
America for, replied, “Prayer! Give me 
‘prayer and I'll have all;” college presidents 
like the head of an eastern institution who in 
his last illness was told that he was about to 
“die. “Is that so?” he replied. “Then lift 
me from the bed and place me on my knees, 
and let my last act be a prayer to God for the 
salvation of the world.” 


When Dr. J. H. Jowett preached his fare- 
well sermon in Carr’s Lane Chapel, he laid 
stress on the prayer life of the people, and 

stated that this was the first thing his prede- 
‘cessor had mentioned when asked what was 
the secret of the strength of that church. 


Jason Lee’s diary is saturated with prayer. 
“Out in the Oregon country he wrote: “My 
Father in heaven, I give myself to thee. O 

may Lever be wholly thine, always guided by 
thine unerring counsel!”? Sheldon Jackson, 
with eye on the horizon, had the spirit of the 
explorer. One of the most moving anec- 
~dotes in his biography is the story of an 
-epoch-making prayer meeting on the Mis- 
‘souri River at Sioux City, where, with two 
other men, he looked out over the three great 
States centering there—Iowa, Nebraska, and 
South Dakota—and claimed them for the 
empire of Christ. 


_ Who can read of the prayer life of such 
“soldiers as Chinese Gordon, or Armstrong, or 
“Stonewall” Jackson, without hearing the 
‘call to intercession? So, too, when they 
found the body of Horace Tracy Pitkin after 


es 


16 THE LIFE OF PRAYER " 
the fury of the Boxer attack had passed by, 
his hands were not bound but clasped in 
prayer. When we have looked at all these, 
and a multitude more who might be mar- 
shaled before us, we come back at last to look 
at Christ, and let those words once more 
search us through and through: “And in the 
morning, a great while before day, he rose 
up and went out and departed into a desert 
place, and there prayed.” “And it came to 
pass in these days that he went out into the 
mountain to pray; and he continued all night 
in prayer to God.” 


Ts it not this which our age needs that its 
life may be saturated with the spirit of inter- 
cession, a rediscovery of its power, a new 
dedication to its practise until our whole 
high, intense life is subdued, quieted, fused 
into holy fire with the spirit of prayer? To 
this we are summoned this hour. 


III 


Tue Lirrt oF PRAYER IS A LIFE OF 
WIDENING MINIsTRY 


A™ THAT can be done here is to put down 
some of the ways in which men of prayer 

may more and more effectively serve their 

generation. | 


PRAYER GIvEs SPIRITUAL 
Access To MEN 


WE NEED reminding again and again of 
the familiar truth that the work of 
winning men is a divine enterprise. If 
divine, then it must be carried on by divine 
resources. Divine resources are made ac- 
cessible by faith, obedience, and prayer. 
Access to spiritual natures is by spiritual 
means. Paul and Barnabas, sent out after: 
much prayer, left a trail of light over Asia 
Minor because they entered the open door 
of hearts that God had prepared. 


Among the private papers of Thomas 
Browne, a widely known London physician, 
were many references to prayer. One of 
these reveals the secret of the remarkable 
way in which he won the hearts of multi- 
tudes. He says, “I have resolved to pray 
more and to pray always, to pray in all places 
where quietness inviteth, in the house, on the 
highway, and on the street; and to know no 
street or passage in this city that may not 

witness that I have not forgotten God.” 


18 THE LIFE OF PRAYER 


Mary Ashton gained access to uncounted 


hearts. She offered herself to the Woman’s. 


Foreign Missionary Society of her denomina- 
tion for service on the foreign field. It was 
a deep and unforgetable grief to her that 
physical disability made it impossible for her 
to go. Soon after this disappointment, she 
fell through a hatchway in her father’s store 
and was so severely injured that she never 
walked again. 


Her place of suffering was a prayer room, 
indeed. She began to make bookmarks and 
fancy boxes of note-paper for sale. In 
answer to prayer she found purchasers. The 
money went to support a native worker or 
two. These were prayed for day by day. 
The business grew; more workers were en- 
gaged. ‘The prayer life widened to take in 
more workers and more unreached men and 
women in foreign lands, and more customers 
for her handiwork at home. Ina single year 
she earned nearly $2,500, and when she died 
after seven years of pain, which were also 
seven years of widening access to hearts, her 
pastor reported that she had earned $12,500, 
every dollar of which went out on its minis- 


try of blessing to many lands. ‘Truly Mary — 


Ashton knew how to get access to hearts! 


A business man of many interests in a great — 


city of the Middle West has had phenomenal 


success in reaching men of all classes with the 


evangelistic appeal, and also in his appeals 


for money for the kingdom. The secret of 


his spiritual power over men was uncovered — 
one day when in personal conversation he 


told what a great morning he had had re- 


— 


A CoNTINUOUS DISCOVERY 19 





=F 

rom 

a =. 
fon, 
Jet 
: y 


cently, spending all its hours on a train mak- 

ing out a list of wealthy men and praying for 
them by name, that they might have the 
‘vision of the kingdom and pour out their 
great wealth for the blessings of mankind. 


Prayer MAKEs EFFECTIVE SPEECH 


Die is no end of speaking and working, 
but there is need of the Holy Spirit to 
Gmake all this effective. What further illus- 
‘tration do we need than Peter’s sermon at 
Pentecost to teach us how prayer increases 
‘the power of speech. In matter it was no 
better than many another sermon, but it had 
‘an overwhelming effect. The very atmos- 
phere was electric with spiritual vitalities. 
‘Back of all was the ten days of united prayer, 
and deeper still was the prayer of Jesus, who 
‘had said, “‘I will pray the Father, and he 
‘shall give you another Comforter.” It was 
enough for those upon whom beat the fierce 
light of the public platform to learn this one 
4 lesson and live in the strength and wonder of 
it forever. Hearts are made tender, words 
‘are razor-edged, because of prayer. 
E Many hundreds of Chinese have come to 
‘know Christ in the last few months through 
‘the ministry of Ding Li Mei, of Shantung. 
Fires have been kindled. everywhere he has 
spoken. At Paotingfu, that home of martyrs 
‘during the Boxer uprising, in a series of meet- 
ngs 470 men decided to follow Christ. At 
the Union Christian College at Weihsien, he 
yegan by organizing little groups of students 
or prayer. In the next few days 116 of the 
‘sti ongest men in the college volunteered for 


















20 THE LIFE OF PRAYER 


Christian service. When asked as to his 
method, Ding replied: “I have no method 
but prayer.” 


PRAYER ASSURES VICTORY 
In Hours oF CRISIS 


A™a!N who lives a life of prayer in the daily 

level of life can rise in the hour of crisis 
asnoother man. Students of our Lord’s life 
can never forget how prayer prepared him for 
the critical hours of his life. He prayed be- 
fore his baptism, before the choosing of the 
twelve, before the sermon on the mount, be- 
fore the feeding of the five thousand, before 
the transfiguration. It was Gethsemane 
with its passion of prayer which made possi- 
ible the calm facing of Pilate, the unflinching 
bearing of the cross, and the uncompromising 
death on Calvary. Paul met the crisis of 
his life in the same way. His epistles are 
“inlaid with prayer.” ‘This same principle 
holds good in modern times. 


In the early days of the student movement 
in Japan there was strong opposition on the 
part of some Japanese leaders to putting the 
evangelical test in the constitution of the 
Japanese movement. Dr. John R. Mott, 
the general secretary of the World’s Student 
Christian Federation, was there. He held 
out strongly for the test during the three 
days of debate. They were days of incessant 
prayer that God might interpose in behalf of 
the spiritual principle involved. At the 
close of the debate the Japanese Christians 
voted almost unanimously for the evangeli- 
cal basis. One of the veteran missionaries 

‘ 


A CONTINUOUS DISCOVERY 21 


who was present says, “That was the turn- 
ing-point in the history of missions in 
Japan.” 


Many times our hearts have been thrilled 
as we have read of that spiritual crisis in 
Turkey, when in 1851, Sultan Mohammed 
issued a decree ordering all missionaries out 
of the empire; Dr. Hamlin said to Goodell, 

his fellow missionary, ‘Goodell, our life- 
work is a failure at the very start, for both 
British and American consuls say the edict 
of expulsion must prevail, and we must go at 
once.”? Goodell replied, “‘Hamlin, the Sul- 
tan of heaven can change this; let us appeal 
to him in prayer.” ‘They opened the edict, 
spread it before God, and began to pray; 
midnight came, and they prayed on. The 
_day broke while the two men still remained 
in prayer that the calamity might be averted. 
The edict was never enforced. ‘The destiny 
of multitudes was powerfully influenced by 
that night of prayer. ‘The two who met in 
His name found’a Third added to their little 
company. ‘The Sultan of heaven was there! 


PRAYER THRUSTS ForRTH WORKERS 


“THERE is hardly any word of our Lord 
_™ which ought to lay hold so of the con- 
science of the church as Matthew 9:38, 
“Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, 
_that he send forth laborers into his harvest.” 
Years ago those stirring words of Andrew 
“Murray moved me deeply: “How little 
Christians really feel and mourn the need of 
laborers in the field of the world so white to 


Fd 
ool 


22 THE LIFE OF PRAYER ~ 5 ea a 





the harvest, and how little they believe that 
our labor-supply depends on prayer.’ 


“Not that the need of workers is not known» 
and discussed, not that efforts are not some- 
times put forth to supply the need. But how 
little the burden of the sheep wandering with- — 
out a shepherd is really borne in the faith that © 
the Lord of the harvest will, in answer to — 
prayer, send forth laborers, and in a solemn ~ 
conviction that without prayer, fields ready © 
for the reaping, will be left to perish. So 
wonderful is the surrender of his work into 
the hands of his church, so dependent has the ~ 
Lord made himself on them, through whom — 
alone his work can be done, so real is the ~ 
power which the Lord gives his people to ex- 
ercise in heaven and earth, that the number ~ 
of laborers and the measure of the harvest : 
actually depend on prayer.’ 


Dr. W. L. Ferguson, of India, relates thed 
following :— 4 


“Some years ago in Iowa there were scores — 
of Baptist churches which were pastorless. © 
The leaders of the denomination had dili- — 
gently sought for a supply sufficient to oc-— 
cupy these vacant places, but without suc- ~ 
cess. In a convention at Webster City this 
critical condition was brought before the an- 
nual assembly of the denomination, and con-— 
siderable discussion was engaged in. Finally — 
some one arose and suggested that all busi 
ness be put aside and that the convention ~ 
betake itself to prayer, asking the Lord of the - 
harvest for the needed laborers. This was 
done, and not long afterward in the denom-_ 
inational college at Des Moines, where he 






A CONTINUOUS DISCOVERY - ao 


_ erto not one candidate for the ministry was 
- studying, forty-one men were enrolled who 
had the ministry at home, or mission service 
_ abroad definitely in view. ‘Three came forth 
from one church in the space of a single year, 
_and twenty of the forty-one have contributed 
“up to the present day an aggregate of 378 
years in active service! It counts to pray.” 


Jacob Chamberlain’s. mother is an inspir- 
ing example of what one person can do to en- 
list workers by prayer and personal effort. 
- Four out of five of her own children were led 
into the missionary purpose by her prayers. 
On the day her famous son Jacob was to sail 
for India, she sought an interview with him 
-and told him what she had never told him 
‘before, that her first act on rising from 
_ her bed after his birth was to carry him to 
_her secret place of prayer, and lay him on 
- God’s altar, and consecrate him to God as a 

foreign missionary. All through his college, 
_ seminary, and medical course she had prayed. 
_ Each year she had renewed the gift as he 
grew, but had never told him, because she 
- felt that God alone must make his call clear. 
_ At her funeral the president of Oberlin Col- 
_ lege said she had led to Christ and put into 
the ministry forty young men, most of whom 
became home or foreign missionaries. 













~ Would that the whole church might be in- 
spired to enter into covenant with Jesus 
‘Christ to pray that a sufficient number of 
Missionaries might be called and equipped 
for the carrying out of Christ’s world pro- 


24 THE LIFE OF PRAYER 


PRAYER RELEASES SPIRITUAL ENERGIES 


Wits perfect simplicity and naturalness 
the Book of Acts records the calling forth 
of power for the work of Christ. We have 
already noted how the four special outpour- 
ings of the Holy Spirit recorded in the book, 
were preceded by prayer. Peter and John 
in the temple (Acts 3) found the place of op- 
portunity near the place of prayer, and the 
required power was supplied. Later, when 
Peter and John needed power to face perse- 
cution, their prayers (Acts 4:24-30) were fol- 
lowed immediately by the pouring forth of 
divine energies (4:31). The prayer meeting 
with the laymen (Acts 6:5-8) led to much 
more than human results. When Dorcas 
was needed for the carrying out of Christ’s 
purpose, she was restored in answer to Peter’s 


prayer (Acts 9:40). 


Very soon after Barnabas and Saul were 
sent out from that wonderful prayer service 
(Acts 13:1-4), they faced a strategic oppor- 
tunity in Antioch, and “‘almost the whole 
city”? (Acts 13:44) was moved. So the story 
runs. No one has ever been able satisfac- 
torily to explain the philosophy of it all, but 
the fact remains that the life of prayer calls 
forth divine resources. 


The records of these modern days are no 
less stirring than those in the Book of Acts. 
None of us can forget how large a part prayer 
has had in the student movement, and every 
other movement which has gripped the heart 
and conscience of North America; and the 
overwhelming testimony of the missionaries, 


A ContTINUOUS DISCOVERY 25 


who have been in the midst of the revivals in 
China, in Manchuria, in Korea, and other 
lands, is that they began, continued, and 
still go on in prayer. - One college in China, 
in a single year, after months of preparation 
in prayer, gave more men to the ministry 
than all the colleges of North America gave 
for foreign missions at Northfield the year the 
Student Volunteer Movement began. 


Henry Martyn declared that he would as 

soon expect to see a man rise from the dead 
as to see a Brahmin converted to Christ. 
Yet these men, who have controlled the 
learning and religion of India for a thousand 
years, are yielding to Christ, and in the very 
pagoda where Martyn used to pray for India 
there was organized the National Missionary 
Society of India. At that memorable meet- 
ing, says Sherwood Eddy, there kneeled to- 
gether Brahmins and Mohammedans, men 
from many parts of India, from Burma and 
Ceylon. ‘This miracle, greater than rising 
from the dead, is taking place daily before 
our eyes! 


Forty years ago, at 4 o’clock one morning, 
Dr. and Mrs. Jewett and three native Chris- 
tians met on a hilltop in Ongole to give them- 
selves to prayer. ‘The field had been very 
unresponsive, and they had no permanent 
buildings at the foot of the hill. From that 
eminence they could see villages containing 
many thousands of natives, none of whom 
were Christians, and they prayed that God 
would give them the souls of those multi- 
tudes, and a home at the foot of the hill. 









26 THE LIFE OF PRAYER 


Only forty years ago! But a few months 
ago a thousand members of the Christian En- 
deavor Society met at Ongole for a conven- 
tion, and climbed the hill to pray and praise 
on the very spot where the five workers had © 
poured out their hearts in prayer forty years © 
before. What thrilling evidence they 
had that prayer releases the energies of God! — 
They could see villages where now live 25,000 — 
Christians, and down at the foot of the hill — 
is a group of missionaries’ homes, a college, — 
a boarding-school, a hospital, an industrial — 
school, a church seating one thousand, and 
another seating fifteen hundred. In the ~ 
whole mission the successors of Dr. and Mrs. — 
Jewett had gathered a native community ~ 


of 200,000. 


PRAYER LEADS TO UNITY 
or THOUGHT AND ACTION 


nae 52 «ye 


I" was this unity for which our Lord prayed — 

in his intercessory prayer. After that 
great prayer meeting in Acts 4, there is a very © 
significant statement: ‘And the multitude — 
of them that believed were of one heart and © 
soul” (4:32). Nothing less than a mighty — 
outpouring of the Holy Spirit could ever pro-— 
duce such unity as that. Think of the di-~ 
verse elements here fused into one! : 


We have already called attention to the 
prayer life of Peter and Cornelius, and how — 
they were led together. Here blended Jew — 
and Roman with a common passion for the 
world. It has been said that “‘the dominant — 
notes of our time are unity, reality, and uni- 
versality.” Disciples of Jesus were never SO 


2 


A CONTINUOUS DISCOVERY 27 




















Brie lear together as now, and no earnest student 
of missionary history can doubt that prayer 
has had, and will increasingly have, a su- 
preme place j in making all the forces of Chris- 
tianity “‘wise and one.” It is difficult to 
- quarrel with a man for whom we constantly 
pray. 
_ There are many evidences of unity at home 
_ in the vast interdenominational movements 
to make America face resolutely the whole 
- task of Christ. But there have been even 
' more striking evidences in the foreign field. 
Union colleges and theological schools mul- 
_ tiply. Interdenominational conferences grow 
in number and power and practical plans. 
_ One of the greatest unifying forces in the 
Shanghai conference was the two prayer 
_ meetings held during the entire time, one in 
an upper room in the Young Men’s Christian 
Association building, and another at the 
~ Union Chapel. 


_ Missionaries early fixed their eyes on Sin- 
_gapore as a strategic center, because of its 
location and cosmopolitan character. For 
_ two years Bishop Thoburn prayed that the 
way might be opened to enter that unoccu- 
pied field. Finally taking his wife and the 
Rev. W. F. Oldham with him, without suffi- 
cient money for their return tickets, they 
; Buarted for Singapore. 


~ When the ship landed, to their amazement 
a, were met by a Presbyterian who exhib- 
‘ited signs of unbounded joy. ‘This was ex- 
plained later when he told how for two years 
he had been praying for missionaries to be 
sent, and was given a vision one night in 


‘ere, se 

: ‘. 
‘ 
4 


which he received assurances that his prayer 
was to be answered, and saw a ship coming 
into the harbor with the missionaries on 
board. He had therefore gone down to the 
wharf looking for them, and found no diffi- 
culty in picking them out in the crowd on 
the ship’s deck. 

Denominational lines were lost sight of in 
the larger interests of the kingdom. Many 
of us pray for the coming of the ship of God, . 
but too rarely, alas! have faith enough to go 
down to the wharf to receive the cargo. 


28 THe LIFE OF PRAYER 


Tue LIFE or PRAYER 
Gives THE INTERCESSOR AN IMMORTALITY 
OF INFLUENCE 


Att Christians should be possessed by an 
undying ambition to extend and per- 
petuate their influence throughout the world. 
Every Christian may practically approach 
omnipresence in three ways: by increasing 
gifts of money, by multiplying friendship 
with missionaries, and by the life of prayer. 
This last is by far the most potent and far- 
reaching. It knows no limitation of time 
and space. We may well stand in awe as we 
reflect that God has committed the possi- 
bility of such a ministry to the lowliest of 
disciples, as well as to the most brilliant 
leaders in the church. 


In northern New York lived a traveling 
man who sold paper bags. He had no uni- 
versity training, but was a graduate student 
in the school of prayer. He had a habit of 
keeping a list of autographs of business men 
with whom he had dealings, but who were 


or 


A ConTINUOUS DISCOVERY 29 


not Christians. ‘This was his prayer-book, 
and on trains, in hotel rooms, on the street, 
at home, he interceded for these men. One 
of the trophies of his work was S. M. Say- 
ford, who is now the secretary of the Evan- 
gelistic Association of New England. It was 
he who led C. K. Ober to Christ, and it was 
Ober who found and powerfully influenced 
John R. Mott in Cornell University, strug- 
gling over the problem of his life-work. It 
was then he chose Christian service as a 
eaneer. 


Every continent is immeasurably richer for 
that decision, and when all the issues in- 
volved are seen in the light of eternity, it will 
be known that the faithful prayer life and 


_ evangelistic passion of that almost unknown 
traveling man set in motion world-wide 


forces which shall never cease to move men 


- toward Christ. 


In a cemetery at Northampton, Massa- 
chusetts, is a simple stone, on which may be 
read these words: “David Brainerd, Mis- 
sionary to the American Indians.” He died 
when scarcely thirty, yet he was such a man 
of prayer that he left an imperishable heri- 
tage to the world. Beside the uncounted 
thousands in America who have been in- 
spired to live a life of prayer by his example, 
his journal went across the sea and touched 
many lives. William Carey was profoundly 


influenced by it, and it helped to make of 





him a missionary who is said to have had a 


working knowledge of thirty-six languages, 
and who labored forty years without a fur- 
_lough, with a superhuman endurance in the 





30 THE Lire OF PRAYER 


midst of countless discouragements. Henry 
Martyn read this same journal at Cambridge, — 
and it sent him to India, and then to the - 
Mohammedan world. It was his custom day - 
by day to go to a deserted pagoda for prayer; 
that prayer habit has summoned countless 
men to live less with men and more with God. 


At Cambridge University there is a Henry 
Martyn Memorial Hall, witnessing to all 
Cambridge men that prayer qualifies men for 
leadership more than any other habit. This 
same record of Brainerd’s life fell into the 
hands of Robert Murray McCheyne, and he 
became leader in the movement to evangelize - 
the Jews which has grown until there are now 
fifty societies working for Jews. It was strik- 
ing testimony which the Rey. Dr. John Tim- 
othy Stone received at the World Missionary 
Conference concerning the power of Mc- 
Cheyne’s life of prayer. We report his own 
words: , 


“T heard in Edinburgh the illustration of 
McCheyne, and though I had read his life, 
this had never before so impressed me. We 
were standing near the old statue of Knox at 
the Free Church Assembly Hall entrance. 
An old Scotchman told me the story of Mc- 
Cheyne in his young manhood, how he stood 
one Sabbath morning in his church; how he 
leaned over his pulpit and said: ‘I cannot go 
on;’ how he broke down and wept like a 
child. ‘Then he lifted his eyes to God and 
said, ‘O God, take my people yourself and 
tell them what I cannot tell them, and fill 
them with yourself.’ 


























A ConTINUOUS DISCOVERY 31 


“The old Scotchman who told me the 
story leaned back against the Knox monu- 
ment and said, ‘Do you know, friend, this 
man Knox did great things for Scotland, but 
young McCheyne’s prayer touched a chord 
in Scotland and in Scottish hearts that even 
‘this great man never touched, with all his 
power. To think that when he was scarcely 
over thirty God called him away; but he 
called down the power of God upon Scot- 
land, and it is with us still.’” 


IV 


“THe CoNncLUSION OF THE WHOLE MATTER 


HAT, then in the light of all this evi- 
dence shall be our attitude toward the 
“matchless life of prayer? We shall be driven 
to our knees only when we feel keenly that 
nothing limits success so much as lack of 
prayer; that he who works, absolutely must 
pray; that he who prays most and best helps 
most in the tasks committed to the church; 
‘that we have not because we ask not; that 
the sob of weariness and pain in the heart of 
Christ has not died away into the silence of 
victory and peace because prayer is not yet 
the passion of our lives. 


_ Awed to the core by the presence of our 
living Leader, whose whole life was lived in 
prayer, and who now ever liveth to make in- 
tercession, shall we not give ourselves to 
prayer as never before? 


Bearing in mind that our warfare is spirit- 
reflecting on the amazing promises con- 


32 _ THE Lire oF PRAYER a, > : 


cerning prayer, in the light of its wonder- 
working before our very eyes, remembering 
that vast energies it calls forth, inspired by 
the example of men of prayer in all the his- 
tory of the kingdom, solemnized by a con- 
_ sideration of its unmeasured and unrealized 
possibilities, recalling the words of Wilder, 
‘“‘He that saveth his time from prayer shall 
lose it; he that loseth his time in communion 
with God shall find it in blessing,” let us go 
away to the secret place, that our work may 
be wrought out in the tenderness and purity, 
the serenity and strength of Jesus Christ! 


(No, 235) THE SMITH-BROOKS PRESS, DENVER 


